Hi all,
David Neary wrote:
> Myself and Dan Rogers will be meeting with someone from the GNOME
> Foundation this week with the intention of having greater
> co-operation with them on things like money.
Here's the rough summary of that meeting.
We discussed whether a GIMP Foundation was viable as a standalone
organisation given the lukewarm reception it's had so far. This
is something that we (the GIMP developers) need to think long &
hard about.
The GNOME Foundation is prepared to act as a fiscal agent for the
GIMP in the short term. We will discuss further whether the GIMP
wants to come completely under the umbrella of the GNOME
Foundation at GUADEC.
To ease administrative hassel for the GNOME Foundation
administration, we should have a small group of intermediaries
from the GIMP who act as go-betweens with the foundation, and
basically do everything but cut the cheques. However, there will
still be accounting overhead in administering GIMP funds
separately, and as such a small percentage of donations which are
made to the GIMP via the GNOME Foundation will be taken for the
overhead. This will be in the range 5 to 7 percent, and we are
currently working on the assumption that it will be 5%.
There will be 3 ways to donate money to the GIMP through the
intermediary of the GNOME Foundation -
1) Cheque - cheques should be made out to the GNOME Foundation
with a note in the memo field of the cheque that the funds are to
be used for the GIMP, or by specifying that in a cover letter.
2) Wire transfer - instructions for making wire transfers can be
obtained by e-mail to fundraising@xxxxxxxxx You can specify that
the payment is for the GIMP in the comment field of the wire
transfer, or in the e-mail to the foundation. The donor should
specify the currency they prefer to pay in, since EU wire
transfers are considerably cheaper than in the US.
3) Paypal - there will be a gimp@xxxxxxxxx mail alias which will
be added to the GNOME Foundation paypal account, and all
donations to that alias will be set aside for us. The alias will
include 1 or 2 GIMP people, plus someone on the foundation (Tim,
probably).
Money can be drawn down from the foundation in 2 ways - as a lump
sum (which will probably happen in Norway, to reimburse travel
expenses) and by benefit in kind (such as, for example, buying
e-tickets for US residents to avoid tax implications).
What we will probably do is decide what portion of a ticket we
can afford to pay, and have the GIMPer affected "donate" the rest
of the cost to the foundation, and then have his ticket bought
for him (I'm not sure how above board this is, since as a donor
his donation will be tax deductible).
Paypal donations are, of course, subject to paypal charges too.
All donations to the GNOME Foundation are tax deductible for US
tax residents.
We also discussed whether it would be an idea to keep a separate
paypal account which wouldn't be tax deductible. I think this is
a good idea, not because I begrudge the foundation their 5%, but
because there is no reason to put either them or us to the
trouble if there is no benefit to us or the donor.
That's the main points. We now have 3 ways immediately that
people can donate to the GIMP (cheque, wire transfer and
non-gnome foundation paypal account), with a 4th way to follow
(GNOME Foundation paypal account). We should get this information
up on all gimp sites as soon as possible.
Cheers,
Dave.
--
David Neary,
Lyon, France
E-Mail: bolsh@xxxxxxxx
